“ACT rejects calls to lower the voting age to 16 following the Supreme Court’s ruling,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“ACT rejects calls to lower the voting age to 16 following the Supreme Court’s ruling,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“We don’t want 120,000 more voters who pay no tax voting for lots more spending. The Supreme Court needs to stick to its knitting and quit the judicial activism.
“Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, the voting age is an entrenched provision in the Electoral Act 1993 so it would require 75 per cent of MPs to vote for the change. In other words, it won’t happen.
“The general public don’t want it either. A 2020 1 News poll found that just 13 per cent of New Zealanders want the age lowered.
“There is nothing stopping 16-year-olds from getting involved in politics already if they’re so inclined and ACT encourages them to do so. The more political savvy and tuned in people are when they do become eligible to vote the better.
"My proposition to 16 and 17 year old voters is this. There's only a two out of three chance that you'll get an extra vote out of this, but you will pay extra tax for whatever crazy thing 16 and 17 year olds voted for at the last election.
“If Parliament does consider lowering the voting age ACT will be voting against it.”